"However, the reality that I've experienced is that the developers most willing to guess about how code works, copy and paste googled code, and push others to f

"However, the reality that I've experienced is that the developers most willing to guess about how code works, copy and paste googled code, and push others to feed them answers instead of doing research on their own are considered to be the top developers because they 'get things done" There are some Nobel prize math winners who can't do simple arithmetic. Why would they? They have access to computers and calculators. Do you honestly need to know how quick sort works? Do you honestly need to know how to do a binary search? More than likely, the answer is no, the runtime you're working in has those operations implemented, and they're more robust than anything you can do. You need to know WHEN to use them, but outside of college, knowing the specifics is pointless, except for coding interviews. You have bigger problems to solve.